ABSTRACT
Though classicism had become a draw for popular audiences when Shakespeare began writing for the stage in the 1590s and its place in the theater was well established by the end of his career, this outcome was far from inevitable. Rather, classical influence on the public stage continued to be contested throughout Shakespeare's career. Kyd and Lyly's experiments promoting classicism in the drama did not, as Cartwright noted, lead to a straightforward reform of popular dramaturgy. In fact, contention over the authority of classical rules and models would surface at the end of the 1590s in a learned debate, itself a classical form, during the period variously referred to now as the "war of the theaters" or "poet's war." In retrospect, it seems likely that a major obstacle to importing a classical aesthetics into the popular theater initially had to do with the popular actor's training and level of learning.
